Wally graduated from Stanford in 1923 with a degree in law. He never applied for a board examination or practiced law in any form for the rest of his life. Instead he went to work for the Los Angeles Times as an advertising copywriter. He held that job long enough to decide that he liked advertising, but did not like to work for other people. He quit and formed his own agency and published a how-to-do-it magazine for home carpenters and builders. In the course of editing and publishing, Wally came across an article on how to build a trailer and bought it for publication. It was rather poor, as he was soon to find out. Every mail brought him complaints.